Balloon Vine

Balloon vine is a perennial herbaceous climber, sometimes woody at the base, that can grow over ten metres and is widespread across tropical and subtropical Africa, Australia, South Asia and North America, often as a weed along roads and rivers. Its name comes from the inflated, papery, nearly spherical capsules, which are light green "balloons" turning brown when ripe. Each holds a few almost black seeds marked with a white heart-shaped spot, which gave the genus its name, meaning "heart seeds". It is one of the ten sacred flowers of Kerala, the Dasapushpam. The Tamil name mudakathan means "clears rheumatism"; the root is held to be laxative, and the leaves are given with castor oil for rheumatism.